Blood Awakening (33 page)

“I’m definitely not mad at Chance.” Even as I said it, I didn’t truly believe it. Somewhere, deep down, I was still mad at him for the way he’d treated me since he came back. Which made me a total bitch, seeing as how he was kidnapped by a sadistic vampire and all.

“Whatever you say.”

“I’m not,” I went on, completely forgetting that Erik and Lacey were in the room. “Honestly.” A slight pause, then, “Okay, maybe I was a little at first. He did ignore me for a month.”

“Well, maybe he was just trying to deal with what happened.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what he said, too.” Then I really felt like a total jerk for even thinking bad things about Chance. When I first woke up in that coffin, I had an entirely new world to accept and deal with. Why couldn’t I see that Chance had faced the same problems?

“I would die,” Lacey said from the chair across from me. “Seriously.” I just stared at her. “If I was turned into one of those monsters, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“They’re not all monsters.” Erik’s words shocked me. From the very first day we’d met, he had always been one to express his utter hatred for vampires. I mean, he was a vampire hunter; it doesn’t get any more against them than that. And now, to hear him say that not all of them—of us—were bad? It was almost too much to believe.

“You really feel that way?” I asked, lowering my voice and turning to look at him next to me.

He rolled his face toward me slowly, his eyes staring into me. “Of course,” he said with a smile. “Took me a while, but I know that now.”

I smiled back. “Thanks.” It was a simple word, but one that meant so much. It was the first time someone had actually said I wasn’t a monster. Sure, Kayla and Chance and everyone else had basically accepted me into their lives, but I always held the nagging feeling that somewhere, in the back of their minds, they hated that I was a vampire. Which was fine with me, considering that I hated that fact about myself, too. But to actually hear someone say that I wasn’t the monster I thought I was…it was liberating.

“Any time,” Erik whispered back, and I felt the tips of his fingers graze mine as he slid his hand across the sofa. The moment was small, tender, perfect.

“Gross, get a room.” Lacey got up from the chair. “Don’t we need to get going or something? I mean, if I’m gonna die tonight, I’d like to get it over with.”

“No one’s dying tonight, Lacey,” I said, pulling my hand from Erik’s. I suddenly felt awkward and uncomfortable knowing that someone else—Lacey—had seen the chemistry between us. “And we can’t leave yet. Not until Aldric gets in touch with Zyris.”

“We have to get back to Ellis Island anyway,” Kayla said, getting up from her seat. It was odd seeing her standing next to Lacey, the one person she just might have disliked more than vampires. “Let’s at least head that way.”

“What about Adam?” I said, looking to Erik.

“He’s fine,” Lacey answered. “He’s awake and alert, and I fed him some soup and crackers earlier.”

“Does he know anything about what’s going on?’

“Well, he knows that I’m a hunter,” Erik said. “And that Lila was one.” Just the mention of his sister brought painful memories to the front of my mind. “He’s used to us running off without warning.”

“Are you sure it’s okay to leave him here alone?” I asked, worry for Erik’s uncle adding to the already overwhelming pile I was dealing with.

“We don’t have a choice,” Erik said, shifting his weight. “We have to try and stop them.”

I didn’t reply, only nodded in agreement. Erik was right: all our choices but one were gone at this point.

“And I don’t think another vampire’s gonna show up here now,” Kayla added. “Not since Zyris knows we’re ready to talk.”

Though I didn’t feel as ready as I would have liked, I was as close as I was going to get. “Fine,” I said, giving Erik one last look as the both of us stood up from the couch. “Kayla, keep your phone close,” I added. “Aldric’s supposed to call after he contacts her.”

“Here,” she said, pulling the phone from her pocket. “You keep it.” She tossed it across the room toward me. “But we’re getting you one after this is all over.” She went to the desk and gathered up her dad’s journal papers, clutching them against her chest.

“I don’t need it.” I tucked the phone into my own pocket. “That’s what I have you for.”

She rolled her eyes. “Let’s just go.”

The trip back out to Ellis Island was slow going, the buzz of New York City traffic thicker than earlier. Aldric called halfway there, saying that Zyris was intrigued by what he had told her and couldn’t wait to see what we had to offer. I hung up the phone, feeling like a live wire. Partly because my mind was focused on Zyris and Sebastian and the huge lie we were about to tell, and partly because I knew Chance’s life depended on us convincing them of said lie. We wound through the streets of the city, doing our best to ignore Kayla’s ineffective shouts and rants about crazy drivers as we passed crowds of club-goers and glowing neon signs advertising HOT COFFEE and GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS!. Flashes of memories hovered in the glowing streetlights, cowered in the darkened corners of grungy alleyways, wafted on the scents of fried meats and fresh-cut flowers. I couldn’t place any of them distinctly, but felt a strong connection to every image, every scent I remembered.

“I’ve been here before,” I said, cutting through the silence of the car.

“You have a real gift for stating the obvious,” Lacey piped up from the backseat. I cut my eyes in her direction. Her face shifted from pale yellow to green with each bump in the road. I smiled.

“Uh, we were just here,” Kayla said, glancing over at me like I was crazy. “Your amnesia hasn’t gotten worse, has it?”

“I’m not talking about then,” I said, staring out the window. “I mean before that. I’ve been here, before this trip.”

“When?”

“I don’t know.” I stared out at the lit-up shops lining the sidewalks. “But I have.”

“You mean, before before?” Erik asked, leaning forward and putting his hands on the back of my seat.

“I think so,” I said. “I can’t really remember.”

“Then why do you think you’ve been here?” Lacey asked.

“Everything feels…familiar. Like that shop over there?” I pointed out the window as we passed a storefront filled with bins of candy. “I remember stealing fireballs from the back corner and running down that sidewalk.”

“Wow, that’s specific,” Kayla said. She slowed the car to a near stop. “You wanna pop in and see if you remember anything else?”

“What?” I stared at her.

“Go inside. Maybe it’ll jog your memory.”

“Um…” I desperately wanted to go inside that store, to get even one complete memory of my old life back. But now wasn’t the time to focus on me. “I can’t.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because, that’s not why we’re here.” I blocked the bombardment of images flooding my mind. “We’re here to get Chance back.”

“We can do both, you know?” Erik was still clinging to the back of my seat, whispering in my ear. “There’s time.”

“I—I can’t. Not now.”

Kayla picked up speed. “But—”

“—let’s just drop it, okay?” I stared out the window as more and more hazy, unfinished images from my unknown past charged at me.

“Fine.” She floored the gas, the lights and sounds of the city blurring into a mesh of distortion as we sped away.

“And try not to kill us before we get there, okay?” I death-gripped the tiny handle in the roof of the car as we entered the Holland Tunnel yet again.

“Yeah,” Lacey said from the back. “I doubt your mom wants my dinner all over her car.”

“Take it easy.” Kayla gunned the engine, speeding up to cut someone off. “I could do this in my sleep.”

“We’d probably be safer,” Erik said.

“You, too?” Kayla turned to look at him.

“Ah, watch the road, please,” I begged, some of Lacey’s carsickness rubbing off on me.

“Why don’t you worry about pulling this ‘hybrid destroying the world’ thing off,” Kayla said, her focus back on driving. “Leave the NASCAR track to me.”

Lacey gurgled from the backseat. “I feel safer already.”

It felt like we had never left Liberty State Park as we parked the car and climbed out. The four of us followed the same path as before as we made our way to the bridge to Ellis Island, only this time, Chance wasn’t there leading the group. My heart ached just to see him again, to know that he was at least still alive. As we stepped onto the bridge that led to what could possibly become our final resting places, a dark cloud of dread filled the air, following me around, just waiting to unleash its drops of acid rain and destroy our ridiculous plan. I don’t know why I thought such a crazy idea would work. Lying to strangers about who—or what—I really am was one thing; trying to get a monster like Zyris to believe I knew something I didn’t was completely different. I had no idea if I could pull it off. Or how to pull it off. All I knew was that I had to try.

We stepped onto the island and headed to the abandoned construction lot in the far back corner. Lacey stayed behind the rest of us, the scent of her blood letting me know exactly how scared she really was. She was a master at putting on a tough exterior, but inside, she was just like the rest of us: filled with fear.

That was the one thing that the four of us shared, that fear. Each of us held a different ability, a trait that made us stand out from the rest. But fear linked us, as I imagined it linked every person. It was a powerful, dangerous emotion. It could kill you, if you let it. Or, it could help you survive.

I was praying for the latter to prevail tonight.

I could smell death as we stepped into the loose brown dirt of the site. It hit me hard in the face, forced in by the rushing wind coming off the choppy Hudson River. Instinctively, I stood firm in front of my friends, scoping out the area in search of the source.

“It’s just me,” Aldric said, stepping from the shadows. He was dressed in much more modern clothing than he typically wore, a black T-shirt with black leather jacket and jeans. Even though he was a thousand years old, he still had the youthful good looks of a model—if you could look past that whole ancient vampire thing.

“I didn’t think you were coming?” I said, recalling his demeanor on the phone a few minutes ago.

“I told you I would be here,” he said, his eyes scanning the darkness around us. “I’m here.”

“Well, thanks.” I tore away from our awkward moment. “I’m just ready to get this over with.”

“Exactly how are you gonna tell Zyris about this whole vampire-annihilation thing, anyway?” Erik asked.

“She already knows,” I said. “Aldric told her.”

“Well,” Aldric spoke up, “not exactly.”

“What do you mean, ‘not exactly’?”

“I told her that you know about the prophecy. I didn’t tell her that you’ve concocted this little scheme, claiming to know who the hybrid is.”

“Why not?” The anger I’d held for him earlier began to rear its ugly head again.

“Because,” he said, shifting his weight like a nervous child. “I thought I would let you drop that bombshell. No reason I should have all the fun.”

I cut my eyes at him. “Sarcasm? Now?” He smiled. “Fine, whatever. I’ll tell her myself.”

“So,” Lacey said. “You’re just gonna walk up and be all like, ‘Hey crazy lady, we know this hybrid guy who’s gonna try and kill you….Wanna trade him for Chance?”

“Something like that,” I said. “Only, I’ll try not to sound like Pretty Little Liars when I say it.” Sometimes my TV memories came in handy.

She tossed her ponytail. “Well, we can’t all be perfect.”

Kayla made a gagging noise. “I’m gonna be sick.”

“Serves you right for your crazy ass driving,” Lacey said. “I think you did most of it on purpose.” Kayla’s mouth curled up in a wicked grin.

“Will you guys knock it off?” The seemingly never-ending Headache from Hell was back. “I need to think.”

“There’s not really anything to think about,” Kayla said. “We go in, tell the biggest lie of our lives, and get out. Cakewalk.”

“Yeah, cakewalk,” Lacey mocked. “On broken glass.”

“She’s right.” My head pounded relentlessly. “This is a stupid idea.”

“Yes, it is,” Aldric said. I almost lunged for him right there.